Another blue XXX on eBay

[crevicetool]

WOW Dave....

What an unusual find!!! Great detective work too! I am waiting on pins and needles for an answer on this. I have never seen that combination before.

Rick

 

[crevicetool]

Something else.....

Is the hammertone, while painted on, thin? In other words, does it obscure any of the stampings etc.? If you could, ( I know how you hate to use your camera), HA! could you give me a close up of the rear motor cover. Something tells me that that elusive hammertone had to be available in some form or another to dealers. It sure ain't now!

Rick

p.s. like a side view so I could see the pattern?

 

[charles~richard]

Well, I am as stumped as everyone else is. I am going to have to check all my Model XXXs (a dozen or so of the various variations) to see if any of them have the three-rib levers.

The only thing I can think of, offhand, is that this is an updated version of the original cover that I have never seen before.

 

[aeoliandave]

My thinking was perhaps during the war with aluminum a restricted metal Electrolux did tests and stamped out some covers & backplates & levers from cheaper and available steel, found it a good stopgap and produced enough that some were sent out to Depots as replacements for exactly this - painting. But that doesn't really support the geared handle as it has more precise parts than the later sliding lever. There's a deep nick on one inside corner that seems to show a copper core...another pea-sized worn area on the cover shows that it may be plated.(Understandably, I'm loathe to remove it to see if the cover is chromed plated)

It's the triple gear tongue rotator that has me mesmerized...

As for the paint, it is hard & shiny like baked. I wouldn't say it is thin as in transparent. Sort of a puddle-y pattern.

There is no hint that there is the usual patent printing stamped on the inside cover backplate but on the lower body rim in the usual place, read clearly through the paint it says:

Model 30 DC to 50 CYCLES AC 115 VOLTS 475 WATTS

AHAH!!! Check your early 30s...

Rick, I thought the pictures showed the hammertoone pattern quite clearly? This any better? More pictures can be taken Tuesday night as I have it off.

Thanks guys.

 

[charles~richard]

Looking at how the paint has worn off of the chromed parts -- the power switch housing and the side rails, my guess is that this is sprayed-on hammertone. Especially since the rebuild was done at a branch office and not at the factory. Had it been done at the factory, first off, the chrome areas would not have been painted over, even with baked hammertone. Because it will not bond to chrome plating.

If they did paint those parts at all, the chrome plating would have been stripped off first.

Now to the front cover lever issue.

I inspected all of my 30s and NONE of them have the type of lever, Æ-D. They have either/or of the following two variations:

 

[charles~richard]

In the version above, the front cover has little rubber "feet" on each side that fit into rectangular openings on the aluminum collar around the bag chamber opening.

Note that the top part of the lever has the same 3-rib pattern as the unusual cover you found with the gears. I wonder, if I took apart this early front cover, whether or not it would have those gears. My hunch is that it does.

My feeling overall about this style of cover is that the latch was fairly easily broken off because of its thinness where it attaches to the machine. The later versions are thicker where they attach to the machine, making them much sturdier. See photo below.

 

[crevicetool]

No Dave, further pics not necessary....

Thanks, what I was interested in was the flange area where the rear cover slides over the body of the machine. Your photo detailed this perfectly. What I was looking for was a build-up of paint film, which the cover on your machine clearly does not have. The two products for producing hammertone available (that I know of)...Rustoleum and Hammerite, produce a thick, (in paint terms about 5-7 mils thick) film. It is impossible to work with for decorative painting, as it is manufactured for rust prevention on exterior metals. To get it to "hammer" you have to spray it on quite thick and at that point it fills any area that is embossed, such as the Electrolux script on the sides of the E, AE, or even the Thrift T. I will find the stuff they used back then, as God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again!!

Thank you very much, Rick

 

[charles~richard]

The paint used at the Electrolux factory would have come in large drums, probably 50-gallon capacity given the huge quantity of the stuff they used, and would have been applied with an air compressor.

But the key part of the process was the baking, which happened after the paint was sprayed. Hammertone paint cures and develop the best when baked. That's what gives it that hard, smooth, dark look and blue-gray color. And its surface is rock-hard and very hard to scratch.